Mass Effect: the Return of Umbrella
by DarkAvenger001
Summary: The Reapers are gone, Cerberus is in ruins, and the galaxy is finally at peace and working together to rebuild. Now, Shepard can finally enjoy a peaceful life, at least until a new enemy emerges from the dark corner of the galaxy. An enemy with a special hatred for Shepard and a very unique history with his family.
1. Chapter 1

**Please review! Also, there will be some mention to a story I have on DA in this chapter alone, you'll get the idea when you see it.**

Chapter 1:

Trouble on the Horizon

On the planet Alpha Centauri, a large Gentek factory/laboratory was located only twenty minutes from a large colony. The people that live in the colony are workers at the Gentek labs, farmers, or worked in the colony itself. This colony was one of the first multi-species colonies, containing humans, asari, turians, krogan, quarians, salarians, volus, elcors, batarians, and even a few geth. The situation with the colony and the corporation was not dissimilar from the situation on Feros prior to the Thorian incident, but laws made on corporately-sponsored colonies have prevented such things from occurring again. However, in one of the high-security labs, a man was examining extremely sensitive data, a man that didn't care about such laws or any laws or morals for that matter.

This man was working on something far more important than some laws made by aliens and those traitors in the alliance. The man was once a high-ranking scientist working for the **true** protectors of Humanity, the so-called terrorist group, Cerberus. That data he was examining was something he'd found old Cerberus databases after the group had been destroyed with the fall of the Illusive Man. The data was the gene sequence for a powerful virus that was created many years ago, ironically through the actions of the man's own ancestor. It was like he was staring into the face of Fate itself. His ancestor had not only delivered the key to putting Humanity on top in the galactic power scales, but the key to **godhood**, not godhood as a concept, but actual, literal godhood. That's why he volunteered to work on this accursed 'paradise,' so he could have plenty of species to test its effects. He would bring Cerberus back, though not in the form that they were. As brilliant as the Illusive Man was, he virtually advertised which of the facilities were theirs. No, the man would bring back Humanity's protectors in the form of a vision from the past. It was a slow process, but one that was getting close to finishing.

He'd faked the science so believably that his 'employers' and any of the scientists not with him thought that the gene sequence was a virus that would alter the genetic code of all species so that the previous limitations would be eliminated, namely allowing interspecies mating, so that married couples that can't naturally have children would be able to. The 'higher ups' had been practically jumping with joy when he said he could provide this. It would make them wealthy beyond their wildest dreams. They'd provided him with everything he needed and gave him whatever and whoever he requested.

As the man examined the key to his plans as it ran through his computer terminal, he heard the door to the lab open.

When he didn't look up, a voice said, "Dr. Wesker?"

He glanced at the speaker for a moment, one of the doctors that wasn't with him and therefore wasn't worth remembering, before turning his attention back to his screen, "What is it?"

"We're ready to begin, sir. We'll be ready to produce it for animal testing."

Dr. Alan Wesker smiled. _Animal testing indeed._

"I'll be right there," he said. After the scientist left, Dr. Wesker looked in one of the mirrors. He had Caucasian skin and his dirty blonde hair was slicked back. One of his hairs had fallen out of place, so he slicked it back again. He was going to change the very face of the galaxy; he had to look his best.

Once he was sure he could get the results that he needed, he would use the virus to bring Cerberus back from the dead and place Humanity as the rightful rulers of the Galaxy and there was no one that could stop him. Not the Council, not the aliens, not the traitorous Alliance, no one. Once he'd achieved his goals, there was one in particular that he would enjoy killing personally: the one responsible for the destruction of Cerberus, the so-called 'Hero of the galaxy,' that alien-loving traitor, Alexander Shepard.

Three days later, a male human was jogging on one of the few Rannoch beaches near any of the settlements. His brown hair was cut short. His tanned skin was glistening with sweat. His emerald green eyes focusing on the path in front of him, a habit that shows this as being part of a routine. As he approached a large rock on beach, he noticed something that made him slow to a stop. It was footprints, footprints left by a bipedal creature with two large toes walking around the rock to the side hidden from him. Realizing the implications of this, the man smiled and ran around the side of the rock opposite from the one he was going to.

Behind the rock, a quarian woman was waiting for her ambush target. Like many quarians, her everyday dress had changed from the envirosuits that they had been forced to wear to clothes that involved light, but puffy clothing that still showed a decent amount of skin. The woman was wearing an imitation cotton pair of purple pants that were light enough to allow the skin below to breathe, but heavy enough not be see through. The matching top she was wearing only went from the top of her breasts to the middle of her rib cage, the straps holding it in place wrapping tightly around her forearms. There was a golden band around her rightmost finger. Her husband often said her clothes looked like a princess from some old children's film, Jasmine she believed the name was.

This time she'd catch her target unaware, he'd never see her coming. She was forced to hide completely behind a large rock as her purple skin that was only slightly lighter than her clothes, her silvery eyes, and black hair didn't exactly blend into the scenery. When her target seemed to be taking longer than she thought he should, she risked sneaking a little peek around the boulder, not hearing her target sneaking up behind her. Instead, she only found out after a pair of strong hands spun her back around and pinned her against the rock by holding her arms above her head.

Her target's face filled her vision as he brought his face close to hers, "Gotcha again, Tali," he said smiling.

She giggled, "Alex! What gave me away this time!?"

"You forgot to erase your footprints in the sand. One might think, my darling wife, that you want to be caught," Alex Shepard said smiling.

"Maybe I did, so what are you going to do with your captive?" she said teasingly.

"There's only one thing we do with POWs in the Alliance," he said smiling deviously before picking her up and throwing her over his shoulder to hold her in a fireman's hold, one arm wrapped around her waist and his other hand on her butt, "Bring them in for interrogation."

"Oh, _Admiral_ Shepard, I can assure you that you won't get me to talk, no matter what you do," she said jokingly.

"There's a saying on Earth, my dear Admiral Zorah: I have ways of making you talk," Alex said in a cheesy Russian accent as he carried her towards their home.

"We'll see about that, Admiral, and watch where you're putting your hands!"

He lightly spanked her and said, "I did. Now quiet, prisoners don't get to complain!"

Tali giggled, "We'll see if you still say that after I escape and take you prisoner instead!"

The 'interrogation' lasted for several hours and ended with the happy couple in their marital bed, covered in various bodily fluids of both levo- and dextro-based origins.

"You ready to talk?" Alex asked smiling, gently running his fingertips along her arm that she had wrapped around his chest.

"Sorry, Admiral, guess you'll just have to try new methods to get me to talk."

"Still with the back talk, I guess I'll jus-" the playful banter was interrupted by someone knocking at their front door, "Knowing his skill at interrupting us, I'd have to guess that's Joker," Alex said before moving to get up, "Don't move."

Tali'Zorah-Shepard smiled and said, "I won't."

He pulled on his clothes, while his quarian wife watched him from beneath the covers of their marital bed. He gave a quick, but loving kiss, saying, "I love you," which she responded to with a giggle and a reply, "I love you, too."

Before he left the room, Tali said, "Alex!" causing him to turn back around. "Still totally worth it," she said with smile.

Alex laughed at the little reference to their first time together. It was one of his favorite memories.

When Shepard answered the door, he was greeted with a sight that would have had him reaching for a gun four years ago, well, six if you count the two years he lost while being dead. A geth platform was standing at his door, a geth platform that he recognized.

"Hey, LJ, what's going on?" Alex said with a smile.

The platform's eye flaps moved and it said, "Greetings, Shepard-Admiral. May I enter your domicile? I need to speak with you and Creator Zorah." LJ, or Legion Jr., was actually discovered in an old Geth facility by Quarian and Geth forces after the Reapers had been destroyed. The original Legion had apparently wished to understand organics' desire for propagation and created a "son" of his own that had an amalgamation of geth programs, just like his "father" did. Unlike his father, the gifted sniper, LJ, the nickname Shepard gave him, decided to aid in medical services and become a doctor.

"Sure," he said, motioning him to enter.

The Shepard house was a humble home on the southern continent. It had two floors: a bedroom, a guest room, two bathrooms, and two offices, one for each of them, on the second floor, on the first floor was a living room, a kitchen, and a family room.

As LJ walked to the family room, Alex shouted up to Tali, "Tali, honey, LJ's here!"

"I'll be right down!" she shouted back. Alex couldn't help but notice a hint of disappointment in her voice.

A few minutes later, the woman of the house came down the stairs, fully dressed, to greet their guest, "Hello, LJ. How are you?"

"I am at optimum efficiency, Creator Zorah," the geth said.

"So, what did you need to speak to us about?" Alex said, sitting on the couch and pulling Tali to sit next to him.

"I have finished analyzing the data from Creator Zorah's last physical examination," LJ said.

All Quarians have had to get physicals once a year (originally once a month) to make certain that their immune systems had adapted to the outside world and weren't going to relapse into their weakened state. Tali, being one of the few Quarians that didn't allow Geth platforms to upload into her envirosuit to speed up the process, had to have a check-up twice a year (originally every other week).

"Is there a problem?" Tali said, grabbing one of Alex's hands in her own.

"Negative, Creator Zorah. The data has results that are anomalous. We had to check these results multiple times to ensure accuracy. The results were accurate, but…surprising."

"What were the results?" Alex said.

"Creator Zorah's birth canal has expanded slightly and has begun to produce numerous hormones associated with pregnancy," LJ said.

"Wait, are you saying that Tali is-"

"I'm pregnant!?" Tali exclaimed, "How? Alex is the only one I've been with and he's levo-based!"

"Correct, Creator Zorah," LJ said, "As you may be aware, Quarians' bodies are more adaptive than any other species and it appears that yours has adapted to the continued exposure to Shepard-Admiral's reproductive cells in your reproductive organs. In other words, you have adapted to be able to be able to produce both levo- and dextro-based offspring. It appears that the offspring will not be hybrids, but either a normal quarian child or a normal human child."

"So, I'm having Shepard's child?" Tali asked still in shock at the news.

"Correction: you are currently forming a pair of fetuses: one human, one quarian. With technology available, we have found that the human will be female and the quarian will be male."

"Twins?" Shepard said, shocked.

"Affirmative," LJ responded.

The couple looked at each other in shock. Tali recovered first. She squealed and grabbed her husband in a hug, tears of happiness streaming down her face. She kissed her husband, the taste of the tears mixing with the familiar taste of her lips. She then grabbed LJ in a hug as well, saying, "Thank you, thank you!"

LJ's eye flaps flipped in surprise at the sudden physical contact, "Gratitude is unnecessary, Creator Zorah. I merely discovered and reported the results."

After Tali separated from the geth, Shepard shook his hand, "Thanks anyway," he said smiling.

The geth doctor nodded, "I will be available for any medical aid that Creator Zorah might require," before moving to exit the abode.

After Alex shut the door behind the geth platform, he was pushed against the door by Tali, who pressed her lips to his, kissing him in a long and deep kiss.

When she finally came up for air, Shepard smiled at her and asked jokingly, "I take it you're pleased?"

"Are you kidding!? I'm thrilled! I thought that my life was as good as it was going to get when I moved into a house on the Homeworld with my husband, the man I've loved since the moment I met him, and now I find that I am pregnant with his children! I couldn't be happier!"

"Well, I guess we should start preparing for the little ones and start calling our friends to tell them about this."

"You're right, though there is something else we need to do first," she said smiling seductively.

"And what might that be, my beautiful wife?"

"This," she said, once more pressing her lips to his before pulling him by the hand back to their bedroom.

Their "celebration" lasted two hours before they started contacting their various friends, namely former squadmates, to inform them of the good news. Liara quietly smiled and congratulated them. Garrus nearly fainted. Wrex offered to buy them each their first weapons. Joker asked if they were planning on leaving any more impossible tasks for the next generation. Grunt said that he couldn't wait to see them fight, since, with parents like them, they're no doubt going to be strong fighters. Dr. Chakwas offered to work with LJ to ensure Tali's and the babies' health. Miranda offered to help them with receiving any supplies that they need for the children. Jacob wasn't really surprised that Shepard managed to be a part of the first time quarians and humans mated. Samara said that she was happy for them and knew that the two children would be of noble spirit, just like their parents. Jack congratulated them, using very gratuitous language. Kasumi offered to come and visit so that she and Tali could buy maternal clothes. Javik said that he wouldn't be surprised if they turned out to be the next generation's heroes. Vega said that he could wait to see "Baby Loco" and "Baby Sparks." Ash was happy for "Skipper" and her "little sister" and she offered to babysit whenever they needed it.

The couple was about to call Alex's old friend, Admiral David Anderson, when they received a message that said bhe/b was trying to contact **them!**

"Anderson's calling us," Alex said in surprise.

"Could he have found out already?" Tali asked.

"I don't see how, but I guess the only way is to ask," Alex said before pressing a button the terminal and making an image of Anderson appear on the screen, "Anderson, I was just about to call you, we've got some pretty big news."

Anderson looked surprised, "What is it?"

"Tali's pregnant. She's going to have a quarian boy and a human girl."

"That's great, Shepard. I'm happy for you," he said, his voice saying that he meant it, "Though that does make the reason I called a bit…awkward."

The couple's smiles disappeared, getting a sinking feeling, "What do you mean?" Tali asked.

"Shepard, the Alliance has a mission that they need you to handle."

"What?" Alex said surprised. Officially, he was the Alliance's ambassador to the Quarians; unofficially, the Alliance wanted him out of the public eye because now everything he was involved in got news attention…whether he wanted it or not. Not exactly a good situation for someone that is typically involved in secret missions.

"I thought the Alliance retired Alex from combat!" Tali said.

"They had and I told them that we could probably have other soldiers take care of this, but the Council got involved in this as well and they insisted that it be you."

"What is the mission?" Shepard asked.

"Alpha Centauri has gone dark. No warnings, no distress signals. We need you to find out why and, if they were or are under attack, find survivors, and find who is responsible."

As soon as Anderson said the name, Alex and Tali understood how serious it was. If one of the first multi-species colonies was destroyed, it could cause problems.

"How big of a squad are we talking? When do I leave?"

"Six-man ground team, including you. A pilot for the shuttle and a three-man crew for the main ship while you are on the ground. I'll be asking old squadmates of yours that I know aren't on other missions to see if they can join you. You'll be picked up at 0900 hours tomorrow Rannoch time. For what it's worth, Shepard, I'm sorry that they picked **now** to reactivate you."

"It's alright, sir. I'll be ready," Alex said before deactivating his terminal, bringing up the normal screen that showed the old files he left open. The files were the ones about his various ancestors. At the urging of Tali, he had decided to take a look at his ancestry. The ones he was on were on his mother's side from mid-1990s. The husband and the wife had apparently been partners when they worked for some secret government agency. Their files were so blacklisted that only a few words were actually legible, words about some corporation called 'Umbrella.' Try as he might, he couldn't find anything about this Umbrella Corporation. It was so classified that even he couldn't access anything about it.

"Alex, I'm worried. What if you get hurt or die?"

"I won't, Tali. I'll be back…before our children are born. You have my word," Alex said seriously.

"Alright," she said before leaving the room.

Shepard spent the rest of the day preparing his armor and his weapons. Before he went to bed, he walked into their bedroom to find Tali preparing her new armor and weapons. Her armor looked like a combination between her envirosuit and Shepard's armor.

"And what do you think you are doing?" Alex said grabbing her arm to stop her.

"Getting ready for our mission," she said not looking him in the eye.

"No, **my** mission, not **ours.** I am doing this, not you," he said firmly.

She turned to him, angry tears in her eyes, "You are **not** going to leave me behind, Alex!"

"No, what I'm not going to do is let you put your life and the lives of our unborn children at risk!"

"They will need their father, Alex!"

"And they'll have it! Please, Tali, trust me. I'm coming back. Okay? I'm going to come back and I will be there when our children are born."

Tali gave up the fight and tears streamed down her cheeks, "I'm sorry, Alex. You're right. It's just-it's just that I have a bad feeling and it scares me. I don't want to lose you. I lost you when the Collectors attacked and I almost lost you at the Alpha World Ender. I **can't** go through that again."

"You won't, Tali," he said pulling her into the bed, "You won't. Never again."

With that, no more words were said, none were needed. The two just held each other close, the only sounds being Tali's quiet sobs. They stayed that way until they eventually drifted off to sleep.

The next day, Alex Shepard was waiting at the landing platform with Tali for the shuttle to take him to the N8 ship now in orbit over Rannoch.

When it did, Shepard turned to Tali and said, "Kasumi should arrive in a few hours to help with anything you need, alright?"

"I know. You just worry about getting home safely, okay?"

"I will. I love you, Tali."

"I love you, too. Promise me one thing," Tali said.

"Of course."

"When you're on this mission, don't be here. You will only get distracted."

"I promise," he said giving her a quick kiss on the lips before entering the shuttle and taking off to face a new mission.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

Just a Routine Mission

The dropship took Alex Shepard to the SSV Indiana, a N8 frigate. The N8 program was created after the end of the Reaper War. It was a military counterpart to the Spectres and included members of every race and species. When he came on board, he was greeted by one of the first turians to join the N8 program, though it was mostly to escape the paperwork brought on by his previous position.

The Admiral walked to the turian commander and saluted, saying, "Permission to come aboard, Commander Vakarien?"

Commander Garrus Vakarien saluted in response, "Granted, Admiral. Welcome aboard."

The two smiled and shook hands, "It's good to know you're on this mission, Garrus. I was worried I'd have to do all the work myself!"

"Yeah, now **I'll** to do all of it, granted it'll probably be a lot easier and classier for me than you," Garrus said with playful arrogance.

Shepard laughed, "So, do you know our mission?"

"Yeah, we're to investigate the colony of Alpha Centauri and find out why they have gone dark."

A deep voice shouted from Shepard's left, "I just hope there'll be something that needs killing!"

Shepard looked at the krogan, "Hey, Grunt, it's been a while."

"Hey, Shepard, if the Council sent you, there must be a hell of a fight coming!"

"Sorry, Grunt, but I think they just wanted the 'Savior of the Galaxy' to be involved with helping one of the first interracial colonies," Shepard said apologetically.

"Uh, Shepard, maybe you don't remember, but trouble tends to follow you."

"Yeah, but hopefully this will be and exception and only be a routine mission," Shepard said, not mentioning the last 'routine mission' he was a part of was Eden Prime, "So, what's our crew?"

"Well, we've got a quarian and geth tag team in charge of engineering, a human serving as the ship's pilot, a batarian for the shuttle pilot, and a salarian doctor for our medical professional. As for the ground team, there's the three of us, an asari named Valir T'Mori, a human named Lisa Howard, and a drell named Khan Talvor. That's about it," Garrus said.

"Commander!" a voice called over the intercom, "We'll be coming on the mass relay in a few moments. ETA for Alpha Centauri: 20 minutes."

"Roger, lieutenant," Garrus said.

The team spent the time waiting for the ship to reach the silent planet by prepping their equipment.

Once they reached Alpha Centauri, the pilot came over the intercom, "Commander, Admiral, we've reached the planet, but they still aren't answering our hails. I can't figure out why, though."

"Can you tell whether or not the comms are being jammed?" Garrus asked.

"I'm afraid not, Commander," the pilot said.

"Short-range comm. systems are on a different network than long-range ones, so if the long-range systems were malfunctioning, the short-range systems should still work. Since they aren't, it shows either someone's jamming them or something is seriously wrong," Shepard said, his arms crossed.

"Uh, what does that mean, Admiral?" the pilot asked.

"It means Grunt's probably going to get his wish for a fight," Garrus said, "Tell Marak to get the shuttle ready. The ground team's going down."

"Yes, commander!" the pilot said.

With that, the ground team, including Shepard and his two old friends, headed for the shuttle. Sergeant T'Mori was obviously a former commando, Shepard could tell just from the way she carried herself. She was about his height. She had a turquoise coloring. She carried an assault rifle and a heavy pistol. Captain Howard was a short woman, measuring only about 5'. She had darkly tanned skin and short brown hair tied into a bun. She carried a shotgun and a submachine pistol. Sergeant Talvor was roughly the same height as T'Mori. He had dark green skin and was preparing a submachine gun and an assault rifle. When Shepard and his two companions walked into the room, the rest of the ground team saluted them.

"Alright, team, get on the shuttle, we're moving out," Shepard said.

"Yes, sir!" the three said before boarding the shuttle.

After the shuttle took off, Shepard called to the pilot, "Marak, fly over the colony and open one of the side doors so we can get a look at the colony."

"Yes, Admiral," the batarian pilot replied.

When he followed the order, Shepard used his visor to zoom in on the colony below. He saw what looked like damage from shots of various calibers and explosions. There was broken glass and he could just barely make out dark red puddles. None of it boded well for fate of the colonists.

"Admiral, I'm not reading any life signs coming from the colony, also no weapons signatures are present and the generators appear to be working."

"Great," Shepard sighed, "Take us to the cargo ship landing pad. We'll head into the colony from there."

"Yes, sir!"

When they disembarked the shuttle, Shepard told Marak to wait there in case they found survivors. The landing pad had crates strewn everywhere. The team spread out to see if they could find any dockworkers that survived from whatever happened. Judging from the large amount of blood that they found, this was unlikely.

At least until Captain Howard shouted, "Sirs! I've-I've found something. It's a little…gruesome." She sounded like she was going to be sick to her stomach.

The team moved to her position and found her trying to avoid looking at what she'd found, while simultaneously trying to keep down what she last ate. Her discovery was a corpse that was so mangled that it took Shepard a few moments to realize that it was a quarian corpse. It looked like it had been devoured by a pack of…something. There was barely any flesh or organs left on the body, it was little better than a skeleton. Shepard used his omni-tool to examine the body. It told him that there were traces of an unknown virus on the body, but it wasn't contagious. Also, explained that the teeth marks had been those of various **sentient** races. One last piece of information was found: the quarian had been alive when he'd been eaten.

"Alright, team, there's nothing we can do for this guy. We should go into the colony, hopefully, we'll find some survivors that can explain what happened," Shepard said as he moved into the direction of the colony, he passed an opened crate. The insignia on the sight looked like the top of a red and white umbrella.

_An umbrella? The corporation that my ancestors worked against was called Umbrella. Could it be a coincidence or is there a connection?_ Shepard thought to himself.

The team moved into the colony and found it in roughly the same shape as the loading dock. There was a lot of blood all over the place and bullet holes all over the place, but no bodies to be found.

"What do you think did this, Shepard?" Garrus asked over the comm. as the team moved from building to building in hopes of finding either survivors or answers, "Slavers? Raiders? Some kind of science experiment gone wrong, like on Feros? You know there's another Gentek facility nearby."

"I don't think so. The company took a big hit after that little fiasco. There's no way they'd be stupid enough to allow something like that again," Shepard said, "Also, I've never heard of slavers or raiders eating people alive."

"Well, whatever did this, I just wish they come out of hiding! I want something to kill!" Grunt said, making Garrus and Shepard smile.

Dr. Wesker had been watching the team since their ship entered the planet's orbit. He couldn't believe his luck! Not only had they sent soldiers to investigate, but they sent **N8** soldiers. As a believer in human's supremacy, he despised the N8 program as it made humans fight alongside those that should be bowing before them! Now, not only could he see how his subjects dealt with armed and well-trained opponents, he would get to see N8 soldiers be torn apart! Just when he though his luck couldn't get any better though, Lady Luck didn't just smile on him, she started riding him like a stallion! He saw two soldiers that he recognized instantly: that arrogant turian Garrus Vakarian and the 'pure-krogan' barbarian, Urdnot Grunt. For the pièce de résistance, he saw the one person he hated more than anyone, the one person that was responsible for Humanity being held back from their rightful place: Alexander fucking Shepard. Wesker was going to particularly enjoy watching him get torn apart. On second thought, he hoped Shepard only got infected so he could be sent to Rannoch to try and infect that Quarian whore of a wife of his. That would be such poetic justice on that traitor! Pushing those thoughts out of his mind, Dr. Wesker looked back to the screen to watch the fun, wishing he had a bag of popcorn, but settled for his notes.

The team had been investigating the buildings for ten minutes, when T'Mori called over the comm., "I've found a survivor!"

The team ran to the asari's location and found her kneeling next to a bleeding batarian. Howard, the squad's field medic, rushed to the injured man, pulling her gloves off so she could work. She examined him to find a grievous bite wound on his shoulder. He was coughing up blood and was bleeding profusely.

After she felt for his pulse, the batarian spoke weakly, "Please. Please, kill me. Kill me now. I don't-" his pleading was interrupted by his hacking up more blood, "I don't want to become one of **them!**"

"Don't worry," Howard said, "I've got medi-gel. You'll be fine," she said as she moved to apply it, only to be stopped by the Batarian.

"Don't bother. Others tried that too. Didn't help. I'm dead already. Just please, kill me before I turn," the batarian pleaded.

Shepard kneeled to look at him in the eye, "What do you mean? What happened here? Who did this?"

"I-it was-" the batarian started only continue hacking, this time spasming as well until he eventually passed into unconsciousness.

Howard checked his pulse and adopted a grim look. She put her hand to his mouth to check if he was breathing, "He's dead," she said looking back at the team.

"Shit," Shepard said, "I was hoping to at least get some answers."

After she examined the body with her omni-tool, Howard turned back toward her commanding officers, grabbing her gloves, "Sir, he had the same virus as that body we found. I still can't tell how it's transmitted, but it appears to not be airborne, though I can't tell for sure.."

"Uh, not to disagree with the squad medic or nothing," T'Mori said, "but I don't think that guy's dead. He just twitched."

The team looked back and, sure enough, he was twitching. Howard kneeled down to look him in the face and gently shook his shoulder, "Hey. Hey, are you alright?" she asked.

The batarian's only response was a mix between a groan and a moan as his eyelids fluttered. Suddenly, his eyelids shot open and he took a deep bite out of her hand, making her scream in pain. She pushed the batarian back as she fell back, losing a chunk of her flesh in the process. The team pulled back away from him and pulled their guns to aim at the flesh-eater, who got to his feet in an awkward fashion, standing like he couldn't stand up straight.

He shambled toward the team, "Stop there," Shepard ordered, which the batarian ignored, "Stop there or we will shoot," Shepard continued.

The batarian continued to walk at the soldiers, "Shit," Shepard said before shooting the batarian in the leg, which only stopped him for a second before he hissed and started moving again.

"What the hell?" Shepard said before he shot him in his other leg, which again only stopped him for a second.

The batarian only continued to walk at the team, forcing the team to open fire on the batarian, finally getting him to drop once a headshot was made.

"What was with that guy?" Garrus asked.

"I don't know," Shepard said before turning to Howard, "Well, Howard, how's that wound of yours?"

"I'm, I'm fin-" she was interrupted by a fit of hacking up blood and collapsing to her knees.

"Shit, everyone back to the shuttle. Don't worry, Howard, we'll get you some help," Shepard said.

T'Mori put the wounded Howard's arm over her shoulder and dragged her out. After the team was all out of the building, Shepard started leading them back towards the shuttle. They got about ten feet before a familiar sounding moan resonated through the silent town. They looked back the way they came and saw a female human walk out from between two buildings thirty feet from the team. She was walking just like the batarian had, as well as moaning in the same way. Then, quarian walked out from between another alley. Then, a salarian and a turian appeared. The numbers continued to grow with each passing second.

"Looks like we've stirred up the hornet's nest," Shepard said, "Back to the shuttle, double time!"

The team moved as quickly as they could toward the loading bay, though their retreat was slowed by the injured Captain Howard growing weaker with each step they took. A few of the strange colonists appeared between the team and their destination, but they were quickly taken down.

When the team got to the shuttle, they put Howard into one of the seats.

Shepard shouted to the batarian pilot, "Marak, get the captain out of here! We need to check out the emergency shelter!"

"Yes, sir!" he shouted in response, "What about the survivors? There appears to be a whole bunch of them behind you!"

Shepard looked back at the path leading to the town and saw what must have been the entire colony slowly shambling its way towards them and they looked hungry.

"Shit! Take off now!" Shepard screamed as he and the team moved back to allow for his take off.

The shuttle took off, but when it was about twenty feet off of the ground, it had to pass a building and Shepard saw…something jump onto the shuttle.

It must have found a way inside because he heard Marak over the comm., "What is that thing!? Get it off of me! Someone help me! Aaarrrggggghhhh!"

Shepard watched in horror as the shuttle turned and began a very steep descent. It crashed into the horde and exploded.

"Damn it!" Shepard exclaimed, "Move to the shelter! Now!"

The team ran down the path leading to the shelter, leaving the burning corpses of their allies and the infected colonists behind. The shelter's door was easy to open, though it took a while, but the creatures were slow to follow, giving the team a moment's rest.

"What were those things, Shepard? Any idea? They kinda look like husks," Garrus asked.

"Not sure. They match the description of zombies, a type of monster of myth and legend on Earth."

"'Myth and legend?' Like the Reapers were?" Garrus said, humorously.

"Fair enough," Shepard said, "According to the legends, they're the corpses of the deceased come back to life to feast on the flesh of the living."

"What do the legends say causes them?" Talvor asked.

"Well, that's the thing. It differs with each story. Some say they're caused by demons, others by magic, and still others say it was by voodoo."

"Well, they're tough to kill! That makes them a challenge!" Grunt said with sadistic glee.

"Sir?" T'Mori started, "If you don't mind me asking, why did you have us visit the town first when you knew about the shelter?"

"Because anyone in the shelter would be safe, whereas those still in the town would be in danger. Also, it was a good place to look for answers," Shepard said.

The asari sergeant seem satisfied with the answer. The door opened and when the team entered, they found the main lights off and emergency lights bathing the halls with dark red light.

"Well, this doesn't bode well," Garrus said as the door sealed behind the team, blocking the sounds of the approaching horde's moans.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

Cerberus Attacks

Shepard and his team moved deeper into the emergency shelter, using their flashlights mounted on their guns to light the darkened hallway. T'Mori was trying to use her communications but having no luck.

"By the Goddess, I can't connect to the ship in here!" she muttered angrily.

"That's how these shelters are built. It's to cut off any invaders that manage to get into the shelter, so they coordinate with their allies outside. The only way to connect to the outside is through the communications center. They typically make these shelters all the same way, so the communications should be next to the stairs that we should be coming up on," Shepard said as, sure enough, the team upon a flight of stairs going up, "Okay, T'Mori and Talvor, you two head to the communications center, while Garrus, Grunt, and I will head to the main room further down."

"Yes, sir!" the two soldiers said as they moved towards the stairs.

"T'Mori!" Garrus yelled before she turned around, "Be safe, alright?"

"Don't worry, Gar-, er, sir, we'll be fine," the asari soldier said with a smile before following Talvor up the stairs.

Shepard watched the exchange and, when Garrus watched her feet disappear up the stairs, he realized something he couldn't believe he'd missed before.

"So, how long have you two been going out, Garrus?" Shepard asked.

"Wh-what?" he stammered surprised.

"Don't bother. You look at her the way I look at Tali. Now tell me," Shepard said as the group began to move down the hallway once more.

"Three months," Garrus said, "We met not long after we joined N8 and we just…clicked."

Shepard nodded, "She'll be fine. You don't need to worry."

"Yeah, like you never worried about Tali when we were saving the galaxy," Garrus said sarcastically.

"Fair enough," Shepard said with a smirk.

The group was about fifty feet away from the central meeting room when the T'Mori reported in, "Sirs, we've reached the communications room. No signs of any survivors or those zombie things. We'll patch our systems into the communications so we can communicate with the ship. Then, I'll work on the surveillance cameras."

"Do it," Shepard said before he heard movement in a supply closet, "Wait a sec, I heard movement. Garrus, take the right and Grunt, the left."

The two aliens set up on either side of the door and Shepard activated the door to slide it open. When it did, they pointed their guns inside, causing the only occupant in the small room to scream. It was a woman. She was wearing a tank top and shorts. She had brown hair tied into a bun. She looked terrified.

"I'm not one of them! Please, don't hurt me!" she yelled, cowering before the soldiers.

Shepard lowered his gun and signaled for Garrus and Grunt to do the same before he stepped closer, "It's okay," he said reassuringly, "We're not going to hurt you. My name's Admiral Shepard and this is Grunt and Garrus," he said gesturing to the two other soldiers, "What's your name?"

"S-Suzanne Frizell. My friends call me Suze. I work on the docks," she said starting to calm down.

"Alright, Suze, are you injured?"

"N-no," she said still shaking from the fear, "I'm fine. I haven't been bitten or anything!"

"Okay, you should come with us. It'll be the safest option," Shepard said.

"Alright," she said falling in behind Shepard and Grunt, who took the lead, while Garrus took the rear flank.

"Admiral, we've got the communication system up," Talvor said over the comm.

"I read you, Talvor. We've found a survivor down here, any signs of life where you are?" Shepard asked

"Negative, Admiral, no signs on the cameras either, but there don't seem to be any in the main room. Guess they didn't want any attackers to get a look at any defenses the colonists set up. Should we connect you to the Indiana?" the drell soldier asked.

"Do it," Shepard ordered and Talvor did just that.

"Admiral? Thank god, we've finally got you! What's going on? Should I request reinforcements?" the pilot asked.

"No! Whatever you do, do **not** send more people down here or send another shuttle until I say otherwise. It would just lead to more casualties," Shepard said grimly.

The grim look on Grunt and Garrus's faces said that they understood, but Suze did not.

"Are you crazy!? We need to get off this god-forsaken planet!" she yelled desperately.

"Suze, listen to me," Shepard said sternly, "The closest place that a shuttle can land is the cargo landing pad and what do you think will be just waiting there for the next group of people?"

The frightened woman thought about it for a second before an expression of realization came across her face, "The horde," she said, "any ship that lands will attract the horde."

"Right, and any atmospheric or aerial bombardment that they attempt would likely take us out as well, unless we get a good distance away."

"So, we're stuck here?" she asked.

"For now," Shepard said, "If we can find a place that is high up or difficult to get to while still being large enough, we can have a shuttle pick us up, though it'd be even better if we could find a shuttle already landed."

"What about the corporate shuttle?" Suze asked.

"What?" Garrus asked.

"A friend of mine works in the Gentek building. He said that they have a shuttle to evacuate the big wigs if it should become necessary," she explained.

Shepard spoke to the two soldiers in the comm. station, "Did you two hear that?"

"Yes, sir, Admiral. According to the map we have here, there's a way to get out of the city without traveling on the surface. According to this, there's an evacuation tunnel that leads out of the city. The entrance is on the other side of the main room straight ahead of you. Talvor and I will meet you there," T'Mori said.

The group moved towards the main room. It looked like a mix of an auditorium and a cafeteria. There were tables and chairs. found something they feared they'd find: more zombie colonists.

"Oh, God, not them," Suze whispered with fear.

Shepard whispered to her, "Don't worry they're slow and we can take them down easily enough."

"**They**'re not the problem, **they** are!" she said pointing not at the undead colonists, but at something that was originally blocked by some overturned chairs and tables: dogs. These dogs, however, were missing chunks of their flesh and were looking at the group hungrily.

"Oh, shit," Shepard muttered seconds before one of the dogs jumped out from behind a table and knocked Shepard to the floor.

Shepard's gun was knocked out of his hand and he barely managed to hold the dog's head back so it didn't rip his face off. Grunt came to his friends rescue by kicking the zombified canine in its rib cage, sending it crashing into a wall. He followed up the kick with a blast from his shotgun that turned the entire front half of the dog into a red mist. Shepard jumped to his feet, hooked his foot under his gun, and kicked it into the air to grab it in midair. He and the two alien soldiers opened fire on the undead hounds as they attacked. Suze, however, not able to handle the excitement, screamed and ran out of the room, two of the dogs close on her heels.

One of the dogs leapt off of the corpse of one of its kin and tried to attack Shepard, but he was ready this time.

"Bad dog!" he yelled as he activated his omni-blade and drove it into the dog's gaping maw and through its decaying brain, killing it instantly.

The team killed the last of the zombies and ran after the fleeing Suze. They found the dogs that chased Suze scratching at a door, trying to get inside. When the dogs heard the team enter, the zombified canines attacked them, but they were gunned down before they even got close.

Shepard banged on the door and yelled, "Suze! It's okay to open the door!"

She did and said, timidly, "Sorry, I just freaked out. I'm not used to being around gunfights."

Shepard nodded, "It's fine, just stay close from now on."

"S-sure."

The group moved back into the main area just as Talvor and T'Mori entered the room as well.

The Asari and Drell looked around and saw that the corpses of the zombies.

"I guess you haven't found any more survivors, huh, Admiral?" Talvor asked.

"Unfortunately not," Shepard said, sadly.

"There've been plenty of stuff to kill, though, so I'm happy!" Grunt said, happily.

"So what now?" T'Mori asked.

Instead of answering, Shepard went over to the door leading to the secret passage and used his omni-tool to open it. The team followed him into the dark tunnel. It was deserted fortunately, so Shepard decided to try and get some information from Suze.

"So, Suze, how did all of this start, anyway?"

"Well, we were working in the docks. It was a normal day and we were unloading crates, like we always do. We got to this crate that had what looked like an umbrella on it. We moved to transport it onto the ship when it suddenly opened on its own and a bunch of those…those creatures came out. They attacked and devoured this Quarian guy that worked with us. We ran, but after we did, the creatures spread out, attacking and infecting everyone they came across. They quickly spread throughout the colony, their numbers growing faster than what few defenders we had could stop or even stall. I ran here after I saw some people do the same, but I guess one of them had been bitten. I don't think that there are any others that managed to survive, at least not in the shelter."

"It must have been difficult," Shepard said, "I promise that you will not be hurt. We'll get you out of here safely."

"Thank you, Admiral Shepard," she said, "The strange thing was that the crate was in the outgoing area, not the incoming. That means that the creatures came **from** this planet, not to it."

"That means these creatures were created here. There's no way these things are natural, otherwise they would have been seen before now. Also, there's only one place that could possibly have created these things: Gentek," Shepard said.

"Makes sense, Admiral Shepard," Suze said before an expression of realization came on her face, "Wait a minute, are you **the** Admiral Shepard!? The Hero of the Galaxy, Admiral Shepard!?"

"Heh, yeah. I guess you could say that," he said, slightly embarrassed that his fame is mentioned even in the midst of a crisis.

"Wow, I thought you retired or something."

"I did, technically, but the Council felt the colony going dark was important enough to send me," Shepard said.

"I'm glad you did. Makes me feel much safer knowing that you're here, instead of some grunt."

"Thanks," Shepard said.

The team and the woman came out of the tunnel and found themselves just outside the colony on the side of the road leading to the Gentek facility.

Their exit had been spotted immediately by Dr. Wesker, who was still in his lab at the facility. He was greatly impressed that the team managed to make it this far, but he was certain that this would end quickly as his little surprise for "the Hero of the Galaxy," Admiral Shepard, was quickly closing in. This was when things would get very interesting.

The team was moving down the road. There were sound barrier walls on either side of the road and many abandoned vehicles. The group cautiously moved down the road, being careful to keep an eye out for any more zombies.

"Admiral, are you sure that Gentek has anything to do with this? It seems a bit of a stretch even with the Thorian incident in mind," Talvor said as the team moved down the road.

"As a whole, no, I don't, but there may have been someone that is acting as their own accord. Another possibility is that someone stole the equipment needed in order to do this. Either way, we'll find out more once we get to the facility."

The drell nodded, "Understandable. Let us hope Amonkira, the Lord of Hunters, aids us in our search."

"I'm not exactly picky as to which god helps us. I'm just willing to get a little divine intervention right now," Garrus said.

"Agre-Wait, did you hear that?" Shepard asked.

The team listened carefully to the sounds of the world and they heard what sounded like the hissing of escaped gas. The team formed a ring and searched for the source of the sound.

Their search didn't take long as what appeared to be a long, red tongue wrapped around Talvor's neck and dragged him from the group. The soldiers tried to get a shot at the tongue, but they couldn't, so Shepard tried to chase after him to grab him before he was dragged over the sound barrier wall. However, as soon as he was separated from the group, another tongue wrapped around the admiral's neck and dragged him away from his disappearing ally. Luckily, his team was a lot closer to him than Talvor, so Garrus had a clear shot to blast the tongue, freeing Shepard from its hold.

"Thanks, Garrus," Shepard coughed.

"No problem, but…Talvor's gone," Garrus said as the rest of the team joined Shepard.

"Shit, what attacked us?" Shepard asked.

His question was answered a second later as a creature landed on top of one of the abandoned vehicles. It looked like a turian, but it looked as though it had been skinned, its slick blue muscle completely exposed. Its three fingers were now talons. It also looked like its brain had grown so large that it broke out of its skull. Its tongue whipped in the air and it hissed at the team. The team opened fire at the creature and it leapt out of the way. Three more appeared. One of them whipped its tongue at Shepard and he ducked under it. It, then, tried to drive the tongue into him, but Shepard dodged it, causing it to pierce the metal of one of the vehicles. Shepard fired at it, managing to hit and kill it. Another jumped at Shepard, attempting to slash him with its claws, but he rolled out of the way just in the nick of time. He shot it with his assault rifle and it went down easily enough. He looked around and saw more and more of the strange creatures joining the attack. T'Mori was using her biotics to lift the creatures into the air and Garrus took them out, but no matter how many were taken out, there always seemed to be more. The group refused to stop firing and made their way further down the road in hopes of keeping them from surrounding them. One of the creatures tried to jump at Grunt, but only managed to run headlong into one of his shotgun blasts. Once they had made it to about eighty yards from the Gentek facility, the creatures seemed to just back off, like they weren't willing to approach the area. Shepard looked around and, at first, saw noone, but then, they saw a man in a lab coat sitting on the steps, seemingly waiting for something.

"Hey, are you alright!?" Shepard called to him.

The man looked up and smiled a dark smile, "Oh, I am much better now that you are here, Admiral. I was worried that His lickers were too much for you."

"Do you know what's going on here?" Shepard asked.

"Of course, I do. I must say that I find it interesting that you of all people would be sent to deal with this little experiment of ours, considering your family's history," the man said with a sadistic smile.

"What are you talking about?" Shepard asked, confused.

The man looked surprised, "You don't know, do you?" he asked smiling, "That is a rather amusing piece of information. You probably weren't told about that little bit of your family's history with Umbrella."

"Umbrella? You mean the Umbrella Corporation? How do you know about that!? They were only referenced in obscure Alliance databases!"

The scientist laughed, "Oh yes, and everyone remains with the Alliance, don't they? Do not be stupid. We will bring Humanity into the future and its rightful place as the rulers of the galaxy," the man said.

Then, the comment about Humanity's "rightful place" hit Shepard, "You're Cerberus."

The man laughed again, "We **were** Cerberus, but now, like the creatures we've created, we've risen from the dead to become even better. Anyone who stands in our way will be ripped apart!" he yelled before pulling a large syringe filled with blue liquid, out of his lab coat.

Shepard and his team drew their weapons to point them at the man.

"What is that?" Shepard said.

"Oh, is the famous Admiral Shepard afraid of a needle?" he asked mockingly, "You should be. For Umbrella!" he yelled before driving the needle into his arm and injecting the fluid into his body.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

Lion's Den

The injected liquid took effect on the scientist instantly. He screamed in pain as the sounds of tearing muscles, breaking bones, and ripping clothes and flesh filled the air. The man's body rippled and grew exponentially until he looked more like a human brute. His clothes tore and ripped as his torso grew. The creature roared and charged at the team, knocking vehicles out of its way. The team spread out, opening fire as they ran. Suze followed Garrus as he moved to get into a sniping position on one of the cars. T'Mori threw pieces of debris and cars at him, while Grunt and Shepard drew his attention with their gunfire. However, Suze tripped and fell right in the path of the creature's charge. Luckily, that charge was diverted when Shepard shot a concussive shot right into his face. Unfortunately, it turned its attention to the admiral and charged him.

"Shit," Shepard muttered as he opened fire on the behemoth.

The shots didn't even slow it down, not even when Grunt, Garrus, and T'Mori added their own shots. The rounds only barely pierced the thick muscles. The creature attempted to slam down on Shepard with its two massive fists, but, at the last second, Shepard dove out of the way, jumping off of the car he was firing from, which was crushed by the behemoth's attack. The car was stuck onto the mutant's fists, so it was lifted when it lifted its fists, exposing its fuel tank on the bottom. Shepard dove backwards and fired at the fuel tank, causing it to explode and drive the behemoth back. When the smoke cleared, however, he appeared only slightly damaged. Shepard looked around for a way to cause more damage to the temporarily stunned behemoth and noticed the ground beneath him was cracked and pivoted.

Having an idea come to him, Shepard opened his communications to Suze, "Suze, what's beneath us!?"

"It's a ravine! About a 200 meter drop!" she shouted back.

Shepard smiled and charged at the behemoth. He ducked under a swipe the creature tried to hit him with and slid underneath the behemoth. It turned around to chase after him, but found Shepard ducking behind one of the vehicles. It was about to chase him when a sound of beeping caught its attention. It looked down and saw there were three grenades beneath it, which exploded and broke through the road, taking the behemoth with it. Shepard looked down and saw a faint red dot from where he was standing, a dot he assumed was all that remained of the splattered behemoth.

"That guy should really watch that first step," Shepard said with a smirk, "It's always a doozy."

"Nice one, Shep," Garrus said, clapping him on his shoulder.

"Thanks, Garrus. Lucky the tunnel only covered a small area under the bridge," Shepard said.

"Ha ha! I'm loving this mission, Shepard! If that's the first major line of defense, then I can't wait to see what else is waiting for us to kill them!" Grunt said excitedly.

"Uh, sirs, we might want to take this inside," T'Mori said pointing back the way towards the town.

The group turned that way to see what looked like every single zombie in the entire colony slowly shambling their way down the road to the team. Shepard quickly ordered the team into the building. They ran inside as fast as they could, which seemed to be enough to trip some kind of alarm as red lights and sirens went off and security doors slammed down to block passage to most of the building.

"Shit!" Shepard yelled as he looked around for another way out.

They were in a lobby with a receptionist desk and a set of elevators, along with a waiting room. There were several doors leading out but every single one was locked down. It would probably be pleasant if there weren't blood stains everywhere. What really worried Shepard was that there weren't any bodies. Shepard moved to the receptionist desk and, using a few tricks he learned from his beloved Quarian wife, hacked into the mainframe to see if he could find a way out of the lobby.

"Ah, here we go," Shepard muttered, "Alright, folks, looks like there's an emergency shut-off. I can open the path to the shut-off, but in order to get anywhere else, we need to use the shut-off," he said as one of the doors opened up.

"Any chance there won't be any more of those zombies inside?" Garrus asked rhetorically.

"I wouldn't put any bets on it," Shepard said as he led the team through the door.

"Um, where are the bodies?" Suze asked, understandably nervous.

"You sure you want to know?" T'Mori asked.

The team eventually found themselves in one of the labs that filled the building. The lab was a blood-smeared disaster. Many of the machines were smashed, blood smeared the tables, and glassware was crushed. The team slowly made their way to a set of stairs that led down a floor on their way to the emergency shut-off. Unfortunately, when they reached the bottom, they discovered the missing corpses waiting for them, blocking the door to the room that the emergency shut-off was located in. The six zombies started shambling their way towards the team as soon as they were in sight.

"Open fire!" Shepard commanded, "Remember to aim for the head!"

The team fired on the zombies, easily making the headshots with the slow moving undead. Once the last zombie fell, Shepard moved to the console and started to work. Just as he finished, the image on the terminal screen changed to a man with slicked back blonde hair. The man was smiling an arrogant smirk.

"Well, well, the famous Admiral Alexander Shepard. We finally speak," the man said.

"You're the one behind this, aren't you?" Shepard asked.

"Quite deductive of you," the man said in that arrogant tone, "My name is Doctor Alan Wesker. I must say I'm glad you've made it this far. It'll give me a chance to test some of my more…imaginative Bioweapons on you, but I'd like to say that I find this whole situation to be akin to the workings of Fate, considering past our families have."

"The guy outside said something about that. What are you talking about?" Shepard asked.

This seemed to surprise Wesker, "You mean you don't know?" he asked before smiling, "Interesting. I'll tell you what; I'll make this interesting. In the main labs on the other side of the building, there is a terminal that provides access to my personal database. In it, you'll learn everything I know. All you need to do is get to it."

Shepard was suspicious at that offer. "That's it?"

"That's it."

"Fine," Shepard said turning away from the terminal.

"You do know this is a trap, right?" Garrus asked.

"Of course," Shepard said, not slowing his pace.

Wesker came back on the screen and said, "Oh, I should probably mention that when you used the emergency shut-off, you opened the front door, so the lobby is overrun with the infected. Also, I happened to send you a little gift," just then three creatures dropped from the ceiling, "They're called 'hunters'. I've found that drell are the best species to provide them as their natural abilities improve those of the hunters."

The creatures were the size of average-sized men. They were thick with muscle and their bodies were covered in hard green scales. They had sharp teeth, each as long as a finger, and on the sides of their necks were the trademark drell gills.

"Spirits," Garrus muttered right before the hunters charged the team.

They fired on the monsters, which just charged the teams, the shots bouncing off of the hard scales when they didn't make direct hits. Garrus and T'Mori dealt with one while Grunt and Shepard each took another. T'Mori hit hers with a biotic blast, which Garrus followed up with close-range rifle shot. Grunt hit his with shotgun blast before smacking it in the side of its head with his gun, knocking it to the ground. Before it could get back up, Grunt stomped his foot down onto its chest to keep it on the ground and he placed the shotgun's barrel against its head and pulled the trigger, splattering the creature's brains all over the floor.

Shepard, however, couldn't afford to use his agility and speed to face the mutated drell because he was the only thing between the creature and Suze, who was cowering against the wall. He ducked under the swipe the creature tried to hit him with and retaliated with a point-blank concussive shot. The blast knocked Shepard off his feet, but only knocked the creature back a few steps. The hunter recovered first and pounced on the prone Admiral, who managed to bring his legs up just in the nick of time to keep it from biting his face off, but his assault rifle was knocked out of his hands. He tried to grab the gun again while dodging the creature's claw swipes and keeping it out of biting-range. Just as his legs became unable to hold the hunter back any further, Shepard managed to grasp the rifle and shoved it into its open mouth and pulled the trigger, blowing its brains into the air. Shepard rolled out of the way to avoid being splattered by the falling grey matter.

Shepard got on his feet and gestured for the team to follow him.

"You do know this information thing is a trap, right, Shepard?" Garrus asked.

"Yes, but if there's a chance we can get information about that guy's activities, we need to jump on it in hopes of preventing any future attacks," Shepard explained.

The team worked their way back to the door they came in and, when it opened, they found hallway crawling with more of the turian lickers. Suze gasped in shock at the sight, which was all that was needed to draw the infected creatures' attention.

"Open fire!" Shepard ordered, right before the team did just that.

Due to the tight quarters, it became a killing field with the lickers dying by the score. One of them managed to get out of the hall and wrapped its tongue around the first person it could, which just so happened to have been Suze. It pulled her away from her protectors, no doubt planning to tear into of her flesh. The action, however, was not missed by Shepard.

"Grunt!" the admiral commanded.

Nothing else needed to be said. Grunt knew what Shepard wanted and what was required. Leaving his allies behind, he ran after the captured girl. He fired a single blast from his shotgun, which blasted the licker's tongue clean off as it tried to pull Suze up the wall it was hanging off of. The licker turned its attention to the krogan and gave a raspy roar.

"Don't you know what you're dealing with, Ugly!?" he yelled a second before it leapt at him. He sidestepped it and, when it landed, he slammed his foot onto its back, pinning it to the ground. "I. Am. Krogan!" he roared before shooting the creature's head with a pointblank shotgun blast.

Once the last of the lickers died, Grunt and Suze made their way back to the group.

"You two alright?" Shepard asked.

"Heh, course we are, Shepard!" Grunt said proudly, "I'm a krogan! Killing monsters is what we do!"

Shepard smiled and shook his head, "Alright, team, let's head out. Stick to a diamond formation. I'll lead the way, Grunt take the right, Garrus take the left, and T'Mori the rear. Suze, stay in the middle."

With that, the team opened the door to the lobby once more, only to find that Wesker wasn't exaggerating when he said that the lobby was overrun. The entire horde was pretty much packed into the lobby…and they turned their attention to the team as soon as the door opened.

The team opened fire on the zombies immediately. They moved towards the other end of lobby, killing the zombies by the score, but for every one that died, ten more took their place. It seemed to be an eternity until the team managed to make it to the other side of the lobby, since, not only did they have to keep the circle of zombies sufficiently distanced from the team, but they had to make certain that they weren't ambushed by lickers. Once they made it through the door, Shepard sealed it behind them, just before the zombies made it through. As soon as it closed, the undead started banging on the door with single-minded determination to attempt to get at the people they saw as food. The team walked down the hall to the next room to find a massive server room. Shepard led the team to the main server and started to access the database. It didn't take him long to find the information.

"My god," Shepard muttered as he read.

"What is it, Shepard?" Garrus asked leaning over to read over his shoulder.

"Umbrella was originally a company back in the 1990s Earth Time. At the time, it was one of the biggest names out there, producing products for virtually every sort of business, but it turns out their main profit came from the production and sales of illegal biological weapons. Their main weapon came in the form of the T-Virus that they found could re-animate dead cells."

"You mean…?" Suze started.

"It could bring the dead back to life. There was a drawback, however. The people and animals "brought back" had severely reduced intelligence and only acted on the basest of needs: the need to feed. This bio-weapon production was discovered by the government and they sent a squad to investigate, but it was wiped out, so they sent in another squad. The second squad included two of my ancestors: Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield."

"By the Goddess, Admiral, are you telling me that your ancestors fought these things too?" T'Mori asked, shocked.

"Yeah, looks like it. Here's the kicker, though. Their squad leader was Captain Albert Wesker, ancestor of Dr. Alan Wesker."

"Looks like…what's the human saying? The apple has fallen far from the sprout or something?"

"Fallen far from the tree, but close enough, though inaccurate because it turns out Albert Wesker was as much a traitor as his descendant is. Albert Wesker, as it turns out, was the secret leader of the Umbrella corporation and was behind all of the experiments that overran the mansion that was the disguise for the lab the experiments took place in. My ancestors and the survivors managed to escape before blowing the lab up, but Wesker managed to escape with the virus data, which he used to serve his own ends, including the complete and utter destruction of an American city, which he used as a field testing site. He was eventually killed by my ancestor Chris Redfield. The virus was eventually completely destroyed by the governments and all records of it were completely sealed."

"Well, that explains where it came from," Garrus said, "but is there any information on the present situation?"

"Sure," Shepard said, typing in a few commands, "There's a map for the building and it gave me the location to the shuttle and the main offices. They're both on the top floor and the elevators in the lobby go right to them."

"Great, so what's bad news?" Garrus asked sarcastically.

"Well, according to this, the elevators are locked down and the only way to reach the elevators is to reach the override three floors up and the only way up is to go through the areas the map labeled "Subterranean testing," then "Aquatic testing," both of which are outside, and finally a sky bridge connecting the lab to the floor that the override is located on," Shepard explained.

"Excellent! Now, can we go find more things to kill!?" Grunt said, excitedly.

"Sure thing, Grunt," Shepard said, "Let's move out."

As the team moved to the door that would lead to the Subterranean testing area, a voice sounded from behind the team, "Oh, Admiral, before you leave," it started.

The team looked and found Dr. Alan Wesker's face on the screen of the terminal. He was smiling.

"What do you want?" Shepard demanded, his voice laced with hatred at the fact that he's following his ancestor's path of greed and arrogance at the cost of so many innocent lives.

"I just wanted to let know that I sent you a little something to keep you busy. It should be arriving right about…now," he said just as something dropped from the high ceiling.

It was a quarian, but its skin was cracked and its veins were pulsing out of the cracks. Tendrils grew out of it and ripped terminals, metal from the walls, and other bits and pieces from the room. The pieces were used to create a massive body.

"We call this model the Colossus," Wesker said, still smiling.

The colossus roared and charged the team, which split up with Grunt and T'Mori taking the left side, while Shepard and Garrus dragged Suze with them to the right. The creature followed Shepard's group and attempted crush Shepard with a two-fisted slam, but he managed to roll out of the way. T'Mori hit the colossus with a hard blast of biotics, knocking off some of the metal to expose some of the infected quarian's body. Shepard hit it with a concussive shot to knock even more of the metal off of it. This seemed to have only enraged the monster because tendrils grew out of the metal back and started whipping the air. It tried to impale its attackers with them, but they managed to dodge the attacks. Well, everyone, but Suze dodged them. The civilian once more found herself in danger as the tendril wrapped around her waist and lifted her into the air.

"Damn it!" Shepard said as he fired at the colossus, being careful to not hit Suze, "Garrus, take out that tentacle!"

"Not a problem," the turian sniper said as he aimed down the sights for a second, before firing a single shot that managed to cut off the tentacle completely, causing the captive girl to fall to the ground.

Grunt, then, charged at the colossus, slamming into it hard and knocking it back before shoving his shotgun into its metal body and pulled the trigger, turning the creature's upper body into red pudding.

After the creature dropped dead, the team regrouped and headed out the door leading to their first destination. Along the way, they found only sparse resistance of normal zombies. It only took a few minutes for them to exit the building and find the "Subterranean testing" area, which looked mostly like a platform overlooking a large desert plain.

"Everyone, check your heat sinks," Shepard said as he did the same.

"Why? What is it, Admiral?" T'Mori asked before realizing she just questioned an order by a superior officer, "Er, if you don't mind me asking."

Shepard paid her nervousness no mind and said, "It's too quiet. If I were the enemy, I'd use this place for an ambush."

"Explains this," Garrus said, showing Shepard a data pad that showed logs on the scientists' study of something called a "hydra."

"What the hell is a hydra?" Suze said before Shepard could stop her.

"I really wish you didn't ask that," he said.

"Why?" she asked a moment before the ground started shaking and a loud roar was heard.

"Because the universe has a way of answering questions like that," Shepard said just before a thresher maw rose out of the ground. The maw had one thing that was different than any other that Shepard saw: it had three heads and a mouth for each.

"Shit," he said, just before it charged the team.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Just wanted to apologize with how long it's taken me to post my new chapter. This semester has been burying me alive with homework, so I've literally been able to only write about a paragraph a week.**

Chapter 5:

The Gauntlet

"Spread out!" Shepard ordered as the hydra charged at them.

When one of the heads slammed into the platform, most of the group was out of the way. Most, but not all. When it slammed into the platform, the attack smashed it, sending the soldiers and the survivor sliding to the ground. When they got back to their feet, the head that attacked reared back and started shaking side-to-side, like it was trying to dislodge something out of its mouth.

Garrus looked around and saw that Shepard was nowhere to be seen. Instantly getting a bad feeling, he activated his comm. with Shepard's.

"Kinda busy here, Garrus!" he yelled.

"Where are you?" the turian asked.

"I'll give you a hint: it's dark, it's slimy, and it smells really bad!" the admiral yelled in response.

"You got eaten!?" he yelled, shocked.

"Essentially. I've got a death grip on its tongue! Any ideas how I can get out of here!?"

"Try throwing a grenade or two! Aim for the base of the tongue!"

"Gee, why didn't I think of that!?" he yelled sarcastically, "Ah, screw it!" he grabbed a grenade and, with one hand, altered the power of the grenade and threw it. When the grenade exploded, it didn't just destroy the tongue, but the entire head, sending Shepard flying out and free-falling from the height.

Lucky for him, one of the other heads rose beneath him to try to and devour him again, but spinning in mid-air, Shepard managed to just barely dodge it. When the mouth moved past him, Shepard reached into his boot to grab his secret weapon, a knife that matches the one his wife kept on her boot. He jammed it into the Maw's flesh as he continued to fall, using it to slow his descent. The other head attempted to bite him, but he pulled his assault rifle out and fired a concussive shot to knock it back. Reaching the bottom, Shepard jumped off and rolled when he landed. He ran to make his way back to the team. The now two-headed Maw dove back into the sand.

When he got there, Grunt said, "Ha! You sure do find unique ways to kill things, Shepard!"

"Thanks, Grunt, but it's not dead yet," the admiral said, as the Hydra emerged again. "Grunt, T'Mori, handle the left head! Garrus and I will take the right!"

The group did just that as the Maw attacked once more. The team opened fire on the massive space worm. T'Mori hit it with powerful biotic blasts, while her partner fired his assault rifle. Shepard and Garrus were similarly using their chosen rifles to attack the other head. The Maw's two mouths returned fire by spitting acid at the group. The group dodged the acid balls lobbed at them with relative ease, but the main difficulty was when the Maw got close and started to attack at close range that things got difficult. Realizing that they'd need to finish this quickly as the sounds of battle would likely attract the hordes again, Shepard contacted the Lincoln.

"Yes, Admiral? What do you need?" the pilot asked.

"I'm guessing that you can detect a massive life sign near our location. I need you to fire on it from orbit! Allies will be danger close, so watch your fire!" Shepard ordered.

"Yes sir!" he replied.

"Everyone, fall back! We've got incoming!" Shepard yelled before he and the rest of the team ran towards the path that would lead them to the next area.

The Maw apparently didn't like the idea of its meal getting away and chased after them. A second later, though, a barrage of rounds from the orbiting Lincoln pounded the Hydra. Once the barrage ended, the large bio-weapon collapsed from its injuries. The team waited for a few moments to ensure that the creature was truly dead and, sure enough, it slowly made its way back up. One of the heads was slumped down, showing that it was dead.

"Keelah, why won't this thing die!?" Shepard asked, as he and the rest of the team raised their weapons to fire on the last head of the Hydra, which charged straight at them.

They opened fire on its tongue, which was the weak point of every Maw. The creature had no chance against the focused fire and, in mere minutes, the last head roared its last and collapsed to the ground.

"Finally!" Shepard exclaimed before he and his allies headed to the next part of the path that would lead them deeper into the large building that has become a sort of gauntlet of challenges for the team.

The halls on this floor were inhabited by the infected as well, not to mention the turian lickers and drell hunters. The squad managed to take them down easily, despite the tight quarters of the halls. They reached the elevator lobby of the floor, only to find it empty beyond a couple of the normal infected. They started shambling towards the group, but Shepard walked towards them, drawing his pistol and leaving his squad behind for a moment. He shot them each once in the head, killing them instantly.

"These things are starting to get on my nerves!" he said as he holstered the pistol again.

"Ya couldn't have left some alive for the rest of us?" Grunt asked.

Shepard shrugged, "I'm tired of this guy and want to end this ASAP. Now, let's ge-shh! Did you hear that?"

The squad fell silent as they tried to hear whatever it was that Shepard supposedly heard. They waited for a few moments to try and hear whatever it was. After a few moments, they heard a faint sound. Something like…buzzing? Shepard drew his assault rifle again and slowly walked to the railing to the right of the elevators and looked down towards ground floor, since that was where it seemed like the sound was coming from. As soon as he leaned over, a dark shape flew up and knocked him back onto his back. Shepard looked up and saw the shape fly back down at him. He rolled out of the way before spinning to his feet and pointing his gun at the thing. He was shocked to see that it was what appeared to be an amalgamation of a salarian and a fly. There were insect limbs and fly wings seemingly slapped onto the unfortunate salarian.

Dr. Wesker's voice came over the intercom, "Admiral, I'd like to introduce you to the BOW known as the chimera. We found that salarians were best suited for these bio-weapons. Did I mention that they rarely travel alone?" Just as he said that, more chimeras flew up and landed on the floor with the uninfected fighters.

"Figures," Shepard muttered as the creatures attacked.

Shepard and his team opened fire on the infected salarians, but they used their flying abilities to dodge the shots, making the squad waste valuable ammo against them. One charged at Shepard in an attempt to scoop him up, but he rolled out of the way just in the nick of time. He spun around and fired at it, getting a few solid hits in and making it crash to the ground. It didn't kill it, however, as it got to its taloned feet a moment later. Before it could take off again or turn around to face the admiral, Shepard hit it with a concussive shot and knocked it back to the ground. He quickly moved to it and slammed his foot onto the back of the infected creature. He pressed the barrel of the gun to the back of its head and pulled to trigger. Grunt was using a slightly different method while he fought his own opponent by hitting it with a shotgun blast when it charged at him. T'Mori used her biotics to grab two and slam them together, before using her submachine gun to finish them. Garrus used his sniper rifle to take out any that flew out of range of the rest of the group. Once the rest of the chimera were defeated, Shepard ordered another check of ammo.

"I'm running low on ammo here, Shepard!" Garrus said.

"Me too, sir!" T'Mori called.

Grunt and Shepard found themselves in similar situations. They needed to find some ammo and quick, but everyone in the building seemed to be unarmed when the infected overwhelmed it. There'd been no guns lying on the ground from where the dead guards dropped them, at least nothing more powerful than a taser. The group moved to continue on the path that would lead them to the next step on their path: the aquatic testing area.

They'd just left the elevator lobby when Shepard's 'biggest fan' spoke over the intercom again, "Well, Admiral, I have to say that you are proving to be quite the opponent, but I'm afraid that I can't allow you to continue any further."

"Does that mean you're going to save us the trouble of continuing and put a bullet in your head to save us the trouble?" Shepard asked sarcastically.

"I'm afraid not. Did you know that this facility was built with a very unique security system? One that was designed for situations with the facility being attacked by outside forces?" the mad doctor asked, his cocky smile obvious in his voice. This, however, was merely an attempt to hide how Dr. Wesker truly felt. He was starting to get worried by the group's quick progress. No matter what he sent at them, it only served to delay them. He was worried that they would reach him before his end game was ready, then everything he'd worked for would be for nothing.

"Yeah, we already saw your security system and it's only slowed us down," Shepard said.

"That was only the first level. The next one will be much more…unique."

"Oh, I don't like the sound of this," Garrus said.

"Me neither," Shepard said, "Get into diamond formation. Suze, get in the center."

The group quickly got into formation and continued to move down the hall. They didn't get very far as suddenly trap doors opened beneath them and the team fell through. They slid down chutes that ended up separating them. Shepard landed in knee-deep water. He looked around to find the room or whatever it was extremely dark with only a few dim lights to brighten it. He pulled his assault rifle out and turned the flashlight on. He heard a splash behind him and he turned around to look for the source. He kept his finger on the trigger in case it was another of the infected.

"Wait!" someone shouted as they held their hands up to block the light from Shepard's flashlight.

When his eyes adjusted, he saw that it was Suze. "You alright?" Shepard asked, lowering his gun.

"Y-yeah. Where are the others?" she asked looking around.

"I don't know. I just landed here myself," Shepard said as he activated his comm. system to call the others, "Shepard to anyone that can hear me: respond."

"Shepard? Are you alright?" Garrus asked.

"Yeah, Suze and I are fine, but we seem to be in a sewer of some kind. Where are you?"

"I'm somewhere on the third level. T'Mori is here with me, but I haven't heard anything from Grunt and I can't seem to contact with him," Garrus said.

"I'll give him a call," Shepard said before trying to connect with the krogan member of the squad, "Grunt? Grunt, do you read?" the admiral was answered with silence, so, he spoke again, "Garrus, you and T'Mori continue heading towards the aquatic testing area. From your homing beacon, I can see that you can make it to the aquatic testing area, but do not enter it without us. Grunt, if you can hear me, make your way to the rendezvous point as fast as you can! Everyone, make certain to keep an eye on your ammo."

"No problem, Shepard," Garrus said before shutting his comms off.

"Let's move, Suze," Shepard ordered, "We need to take it slow, alright?"

"O-okay," she replied as she followed the admiral through the sewers.

For five minutes, the only sounds that either of them heard was the sound of their own feet moving through the water and water dripping from pipes or flowing out of them. Once they got finally made it to a dry path, Shepard pried open an old and rusty door. This area had a grating covering the water, so there was more area for the two to walk. When they were about to pass two smaller halls, Shepard heard something down one of them. The hall was so dark that he could not see more than two feet down it.

"Oh, I have a bad feeling about this," Shepard muttered as he slowly turned the light down the hall. As it turns out, the admiral's were…unjustified as a rat scurried past their light. "Phew," he sighed.

"Nice to see that I'm not the only one who's jumpy," Suze said as she moved closer to the hall to take a look herself.

"Yeah, I guess so," Shepard said as he turned around…coming face to zombified face with one of the infected. It grabbed him by the shoulders and tried to bite him on his face, but Shepard's battle-hardened reflexes saved him once again as he brought his rifle up, pressing the barrel to the underside of the infected's chin, and pulled the trigger. He turned his head to protect his face from the falling grey matter, freeing from the dead undead's grasp. Unfortunately, dozens more of the infected began shambling out of the darkness. Shepard grabbed Suze and pulled her ahead of him. "Run!" he shouted as the two of them did just that.

Shepard fired behind him as they ran until the last of his heat sinks ran out. The two ran as fast as they could, but it seemed with each hall that they passed, another dozen infected shambled out. They eventually came to another heavy door. Shepard and Suze worked together to push the rusted door open. Once it was open enough for them to slip through, they did with Shepard following behind. The infected tried to grab Shepard as he slipped through, but he managed to pull free just before they sank their teeth into his arm. The two pushed hard against the door to keep the infected from entering the room with them. The horde pushed back, attempting to get at the 'food' they were chasing, but with a sudden burst of adrenaline-fueled strength, Shepard pushed the door closed and took off an arm of one of the infected. The infected weren't done even after the door sealed into place as they began banging on the door even though there was no way they could get through the metal obstacle.

Shepard collapsed onto the ground, letting out a big sigh, "Finally, a break," he said before looking around. There was only one other door in the room and, according to the map, it would lead them outside, but when they went through the door, the arid environment wasn't the only thing waiting for them. Another horde was blocking their path and, this time, there was no running from it.

The infected started shambling towards the trapped humans, but the vanguard was suddenly killed by shots from a sniper rifle and a biotic shockwave. The two humans looked to see that Garrus and T'Mori made their way out of another door and came down the steps to make it to Shepard and Suze.

"Thanks for coming, Garrus, T'Mori," Shepard said.

"Well, someone had to save your hide…again," Garrus said jokingly, not taking his eyes off of the oncoming horde.

"Any chance you've got heat sinks to spare?"

"'Fraid not. I'm on my last one and T'Mori's completely out," Garrus explained.

"Then, we do this the hard way," Shepard said as he activated his omni-blade and holstered his assault rifle.

The group prepared to fight the mass of infected, but it turned out to be unnecessary because, before the horde got within a meter of the squad, they came under fire of a hail of rounds. The squad looked to a bridge that was several levels up and connected the main building to the platform holding the smaller one that had the aquatic testing area. There, on the bridge, was Grunt firing a portable twin mass accelerator cannon, a more modern version of the mini-gun and, in pure Grunt fashion, he was laughing hysterically at the sight of his enemies dying.

"Why am I not surprised?" Shepard asked rhetorically with an amused smile on his face. The squad decided to just wait for the krogan to finish off the horde, which, with his powerful weapon, did not take long.

When the last infected fell, Shepard waved at Grunt to gesture for him to meet up with them. He seemed to understand and made his way towards the building, while Shepard's group did the same, while stepping through the puddles that had been the infected only moments before.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

Invoking St. Jude

Once Grunt managed to kill the last of the infected, the group made their way up to the platform that held the aquatic testing area to meet with their krogan ally. They could now see that Grunt was carrying multiple bags in addition to the large weapon that he had used to save his friends.

"Hey, Shepard, I found the armory! I brought extra ammo for you all!" Grunt said, giddy at the prospect of causing more death and destruction.

Shepard smiled, "If anyone was going to find it, it was gonna be you, Grunt."

"I'll say," Garrus said, "I'm beginning to think that Krogan have a sixth sense that allows them to sense where weapons can be found."

"Nope! We're just lucky!" Grunt said, jokingly.

Suze and T'Mori looked at each other in shock. Were these three really joking around in the middle of a dangerous area?

"Uh, Admiral, I think we should keep moving before more of those creatures show up," T'Mori suggested.

"Right, let's reload and move out," Shepard said, "We need to head up there." He pointed up at a bridge leading from the second level of the aquatic testing area to a higher level of the tower.

The team nodded their understanding and headed inside. In the floor in front of them, there was a massive pool surrounded by a metal railing. Shepard looked around to see any threats that might be present, but found none until a voice rang out above them.

"I gotta say, I expected you all to get here a lot faster!" the team looked up to see another man waiting on a balcony overlooking the pool. "But I guess it doesn't matter, since now, you're all going to die!" With that, he pressed a button on the console in front of him and giant, pink, and translucent tentacles shot out of the large pool. "Say, 'hello' to the Kraken, our sea-based bioweapon made from hanar." The tips of the tentacles split into cross-shapes to reveal mouths at the ends of each of the tentacles. The head then rose to show tractor tire-sized eyes and a circular mouth with rows and rows of razor-sharp teeth. "Beautiful, isn't it? However, there is one improvement that I'd like to make," the man said before pulling out a syringe similar to the first scientist's and injected himself with the liquid before jumping onto the kraken's head. When he touched it, the creatures flesh began ripple, as did the man's and they both sunk back beneath the surface. The team had an idea what was coming so they readied their weapons.

Sure enough, a minute later, the kraken rose back out of the water, this time with a large mutated human body, from the waist up, merged with the top of its head.

"Now, we are perfect! Now, we are the God of the Sea, Poseidon! Now, face our divine wrath, Shepard the blaspheming traitor of Humanity!" the 'god' shouted as he sent his tentacles at the team, their mouths gaping wide to devour them whole.

They scattered to avoid the attacks and the team opened fire on creature. The shots didn't seem to be causing much harm to the creature, despite the wounds that they caused. One of the tentacles managed to get lucky and swat Garrus away, slamming him into a wall. Shepard fired a concussive shot at a charging tentacle making it swallow the shot and explode. Realizing the tentacles were the vulnerable part of the creature, the team opened fire on them, with Grunt blasting them apart with his shotgun, Shepard using his assault rifle, and Garrus slowing them down enough with his sniper rifle shots for T'Mori to blast them with her biotics. The tentacles were being destroyed left and right and the team managed to avoid being crushed by them.

When there were only a few tentacles left, the massive mutant yelled, "Enough!" as the circular mouth of the Hanar body roared knocking them off their feet. One of the tentacles grabbed Shepard by his ankle and lifted him up, so that he was eye-level with the creature. "You've done quite enough damage, Shepard. It's time to finish this!" With that, the kraken pulled Shepard down under the water.

As they went deeper into the pool, Shepard saw that he was being pulled into the circular mouth of the hanar creature. He pulled his rifle to bear and fired another concussive shot into its mouth, making it roar again and loosening its grip on his ankle. The human part of the kraken grabbed Shepard by his shoulders and opened its mouth to reveal a mouth full of needle-like teeth. Shepard shoved his rifle into the mouth of the creature and pulled the trigger, blowing the top of the creature's head clean off. He then pulled free of the dying creature's grasp and pulled out three grenades before activating and dropping them so that they fell into the hanar creature's mouth. Once they did, Shepard swam to the surface as fast as he could, though it wasn't fast enough because the explosion blasted him out of the water and the pool, causing him to slam to the ground.

"Shepard!" Garrus called as he and the rest of the team rushed to him, "You alright, Shepard?"

Shepard groaned and coughed up some water, "Yeah, though I'm fucking soaked." He started pulling his armor off to let the water trapped inside come out. Deciding to take a break, the group sat down and began checking their ammo. Once Shepard was out of the armor, Garrus noticed something around his neck that he hadn't before. In addition to his usual dog tags, there was a necklace with a circular medallion around his neck.

"Hey, Shepard, what's that?" Garrus asked, pointing at the medallion.

Shepard looked down to see that he was pointing at the medallion. "It's a necklace my parents gave me when I was little. I stood up to these schoolyard bullies when they were picking on this kid, even though they were numbered at ten and I was alone and three years their younger. I still managed to beat them and made them run like little girls," Shepard remembered with a smile, "When my parents found out, they were proud of me for standing up for someone despite the odds and gave me this, since the felt it fit," he explained as he held up the medallion for Garrus to see. He saw that it showed the image of a person that Garrus didn't recognize.

"Who is it?" the turian sniper asked.

"St. Jude, the patron saint of the hopeless and lost causes," Shepard explained.

"That…explains a lot actually," Shepard's long-time friend and ally said, "I gotta say that I never took you for being religious, Shepard."

"I'm not really," Shepard said, "My parents were. I just kept wearing it and it eventually became my lucky charm."

"Didn't seem to do much good when the Collectors attacked."

"Actually, the necklace had been damaged and I sent it to a jeweler to be repaired. Anderson was going to send it to me when it was finished."

"Wow, you've got a saint on your side. Certainly explains how you keep surviving suicide missions. So, is your armor dry yet?"

Shepard checked and, sure enough, it was, so he put it back on and, leading the team, headed for the stairs and the second floor exit.

Before they left, however, Wesker's voice once more came over the PA system. "Admiral, congratulations on your latest victory. I am honestly impressed at how far you've managed to get, despite all of the obstacles that I've put in your way. So, I've decided to make this little game of ours a bit more interesting. I've set the self-destruct sequence for this facility, yet another plan that was put in place to ensure the Thorian incident was never repeated. When the tower explodes, it will be with enough power that it will make the bomb at Hiroshima seem like a firecracker. I think a three hour time limit is fair, don't you? So, here are the goals. If you die before reaching me if I kill you when you do, or if you fail to reach me in the three hours, then I win. If you manage to reach me and kill me, then you win. So, I say, let the games truly begin."

With that, the team burst through the door planning on hurrying through the next section, but found that would be very difficult due to the bridge being completely covered with the infected. The ones that got Shepard's attention were the volus ones as they had red cracks over what remained of their suits. The moment after the team took in this scene, they opened fire on the infected. When one of the shots connected with the volus infected, it exploded, killing five of the infected.

"Guys, be careful with the volus ones! They tend to go 'pop!'" Garrus shouted.

"Better yet, aim for the 'poppers' so we can save ammo and time!" Shepard yelled.

Realizing that he was right, the team fired on the volus 'poppers,' which greatly sped up the infected deaths. Upon reaching the other side of the bridge, they headed to the small maintenance area to their left. There were a couple infected inside, but they were easily taken down.

Reaching the terminal, Shepard quickly got to work on unlocking the elevators, remembering the lessons that his beloved wife gave him to improve his technological know-how. Once they were unlocked, the team headed back to the elevator bay and climbed in. They rode the elevator up, hoping to make it to the top of the tower, but it seems that was asking too much because, after a few floors, the elevator stopped in its tracks.

"Sorry, Admiral, but I can't make it that easy for you!" Wesker said over the PA system.

"Shit," Shepard said as he tore the cover off of the terminal on the wall to try and get it started again.

"How's it look, Shepard?" Garrus asked after Shepard input a few commands.

"Not too good. I think I can get it started again, but not up to the top floor. I'll get us to the highest floor I can and we can find a way up from there. I just need a few moments," Shepard said just before something slammed onto the roof of the elevator. Whatever it was started clawing at the roof, judging by the shrieking sounds. "Great, just what I don't need!" Shepard yelled as he started working faster.

A second later, the creature tore open the roof, exposing the mutated face of a vorcha. The normally long claw-like fingers of the species were even longer and seemingly made of some kind of metal. It roared at the people in the elevator before reaching in to try and grab the people inside, but they managed to stay just out of reach.

"Beat it!" Grunt shouted before bringing his shotgun to bear and blasting the creature right in the face.

Soon after, two more of these 'berserkers' dropped to the roof of the elevator and widened the hole to try and get at the trapped people. The elevator, however, opened just as they did and the team ran out.

"Shepard, that's not going to hold them for long!" Garrus said as the door closed behind them.

"I know, that's why I left a special surprise for them!" Shepard said just before the creatures started prying open the doors. As soon as they did, the elevator dropped like a rock taking the berserkers with them, though they left behind a few fingers.

"Ha! Nice one, Shepard! So, where do we go now?" Grunt asked.

"Hang on, let's check the map," Shepard said as he activated his omni-tool to do just that, "Hmm, looks like there's another set of stairs that can take us up to at least the next floor in the…oh Keelah, the 'jungle testing facility.'"

Everyone in the group knew what was going to be coming. "So, what is going to attack us this time?" Suze asked.

"Guess there's only one way to find out," Shepard said, as he led the team along the path.

After a few minutes of walking and a few infected killed, the team reached the testing area, where they found what appeared to be an indoor jungle, complete with trees, vines, and fog. Shepard and his team looked around to try and find a way out when they heard growls coming from the trees.

They looked up to see many turian lickers and drell hunters glaring hungrily at them. The team quickly brought their guns to bear against the infected army. They opened fire upon the creatures. They dodged the lickers' tongue attacks, while attempting to stay out of range of the hunters' claws. Despite them being able to hold their own against the infected, the team wasted valuable time in defeating them. When the last of the infected fell, the team headed into the faux jungle in hopes of heading to the next floor, but a thundering moan echoed through the area.

"Oh, great," Shepard said, keeping an eye on the shadows of the jungle to try and identify the source of the sound.

Suddenly, three large grey shapes leapt through the treetops to land directly in the team's path. They were clearly elcor in origin, but these things were more bipedal and their back legs were thicker and stronger to allow for more bipedal movement, while its shoulders were in a more humanoid position.

These 'gorillas' gave another thundering roar before jumping into the branches again to swing at the team. The team dove out of the way when the creatures crashed back to the ground.

They opened fire on the gorillas with their different weapons, hoping to kill them before they could cause much damage with their tree trunk sized arms. Unfortunately, their weapons weren't causing nearly as much damage as they hoped, so the krogan of the team pulled his new weapon out and let loose his shots.

The powerful gun managed to catch one of the gorillas, effectively turning the infected creature into swiss cheese, but as soon as the first creature died, the twin mass accelerator cannon clicked empty.

"Fuck, not only are these things faster than normal Elcors, but their also harder to kill!" Shepard shouted in irritation.

"Any ideas on how to kill these things, Shepard!?" Garrus asked as he dodged another attack.

"Some!" he replied as he switched to incendiary ammo and opened fire on the creatures.

He managed to set one of them on fire, but now they had to deal with a flaming infected. This didn't stop Shepard from continuing to try it and eventually the burning creature collapsed from the flame damage and this time didn't rise. That left them with one of the creatures. The creature tried to attack Suze, but T'Mori pulled her out of the way just before the attack connected. When it missed, the creature jumped back into the trees. Shepard switched to cryo ammo and fired at it as it charged at him, causing the creature to freeze solid as it fell. The admiral dove out of the way, making it slam to the ground and shatter to pieces.

"Well, that's that, then," Garrus said with the turian equivalent of a smile, "So, where to now?"

Shepard pointed at a set of steps that were now visible through the trees. "We head up there and there will be one more testing site. Once we get through there, we'll be in the top levels, where there will be stairs to take us to the main office, where Wesker is and the Executive Shuttle.

"So, what are we waiting for!? Let's go kill some more!" Grunt shouted impatiently before Shepard nodded and they jogged to the stairs, not wanting to wear themselves out before the final battle.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7:

The Final Battle

The stairs took the team out to a new testing site, just like Shepard said. This one appeared to be in the form of a large city, complete with skyscrapers. The team looked around for any sign of a threat, but finding none they continued on their way, the four soldiers surrounding Suze to protect her.

This proved to be of no avail because something with tentacles grabbed T'Mori by her neck and arms.

"Garrus!" she cried getting everyone's attention. They looked up to see her being pulled by what appeared to be blue scaly tentacles.

They looked to see a creature that had clearly been asari before her infection. Now her head-tentacles seemed to writhe like snakes and seemed to have the ability to grow. Her eyes were slits, her teeth were sharp, her body was covered in blue scales, and her body from the waist down was serpentine.

"Let go of her!" Garrus shouted in rage as he started firing at the gorgon-like creature with his sniper rifle. One of his shots injured the creature, making it drop her. She used her biotics slow her fall. While she did, the team opened fire on creature but it slipped into the window of one of the buildings.

Three more of the creatures appeared and sent their tentacles to swipe at the team and try to grab them. The team fired back at them, but the creatures were slippery like, well, snakes. T'Mori grabbed one with her biotics to keep it from slipping away before firing at her captive with her own gun. The creature's death seemed to be some kind of signal because, after it died, numerous other infected creatures began to appear from the salarian chimera to the turian lickers to drell hunters. Even regular infected were making an appearance. The team opened fire on the creatures, while making their way to the door that would take them to the next area.

They used the infected creatures' attacks to their advantage. When the elcor gorillas swung their massive fists at the team, they moved out of their way to make them hit and crush the other infected. The vorcha berserkers' claws were stained with the blood of the infected that attempted to get in the way of their attacks. Shepard was especially daring in this plan as he moved himself in between a charging elcor gorilla and a quarian colossus, which ended with the two colliding into each other and the colossus's head to be crushed before Shepard used his assault rifle to blast the gorilla from pointblank range.

The team continued to move to the door with the special infected biting at their heels. The door was just in sight when a new threat blocked their path.

The new infected were of batarian origin and looked more or less the same, but their usual eyes were replaced with a single glowing yellow pustule. One of these Cyclopes' 'eyes' bulged out and shot at the squad. They managed to get out of the way to avoid the projectile, which hit a group of infected and burst, spilling its content all over the creatures.

Shepard looked back when he heard sizzling and saw the liquid was melting the infected right to the bone.

"Oh Keelah! Acid!" he yelled and the team focused their fire on the Cyclopes, while avoiding their shots and sprinting towards the door to outrun the chasing infected.

The team's shots killed enough of the Cyclopes to make an opening for them to slip through. They ran through the door and sealed it behind them. Then, Shepard used his omni-tool to cause the blast door over it. As soon as it slammed shut, the infected could be heard slamming against it, along the berserkers clawing at it with their razor-sharp claws.

The team looked around the room to see that they were in the last segments of the tower. It was a massive room with a stairwell off to the side that ran up around the circular wall to the next floor. To their right, there was a massive door that Shepard assumed led to the rest of the floor.

Just then, Wesker's voice came over the PA system again, "Ah, Shepard, so glad that you could make it! I have everything ready for you and am waiting for you! Please, come on up. Oh, and just to make certain you don't drag your feet, I've invited some friends up as well."

At his words, the large door opened up and a massive horde of regular infected came out, shambling towards the squad.

"What a Bosh'tet!" Shepard yelled, "Everyone, move!"

The team ran for the long set of stairs as the infected shambled after them. Once they all made it to the next level, there were five chimera, six hunters, and one gorilla waiting and the entrance shut behind them.

Not wanting to give the creatures the chance to attack, the team opened fire on them. They managed to kill two hunters and a chimera before they could even retaliate.

The creatures attacked them with the usual hungry ferocity. They forced the team to separate with some of them going after T'Mori and Garrus, while the rest of the smaller ones went after Shepard and Suze, who was pulled along behind him by said Admiral. Grunt alone stood against the gorilla.

Shepard ducked under the swipe of one of the hunters' claws and pulled Suze out of the reach of one of the chimeras. He fired at the former salarian before firing a concussive shot at the hunter. Then, switching to cryo ammo, he hit the remaining chimera and backpedaled to avoid the claws of his last hunter.

Shepard risked glances at his comrades as he fought. T'Mori and Garrus were using their usual combination of biotics and sniper rifle shots to deal with their own opponents.

Grunt, on the other hand, chose to follow different tactics. He'd, in pure krogan fashion, charged headlong at his much larger opponent Grunt was using close-range shotgun blasts to do damage to the infected elcor while using Fortification to strengthen his shields and avoid taking too much damage.

After checking on his allies, Shepard pointing his gun at the hunter to hit it with a round of shots with incendiary ammo, setting it ablaze. It died from the flames.

Once the infected were dead, the stairway to the next floor opened up and the squad headed up to the next level. On this floor, there was another set of winding steps and another large door.

Once again, the way back was sealed behind them and Wesker's mocking voice came over the PA system once more, "Well, Shepard, you're almost here, but I'm afraid you've still got one more fight before the big showdown and I've saved the best for last!" At that, the nearby door opened up and two large figures came lumbering out. They looked like krogans, but these ones were bhuge/b! They were over seven feet tall and arms almost as thick as the gorillas' and their legs were just as thick. They were clad in black leather coats, shirts, boots, pants, and gloves. "Do you like them, Admiral? We call them 'tyrants!' I look forward to seeing how well you do against them!"

The creatures began to lumber towards the squad, which opened fire on them. Luckily, the tyrants were slow, but, as the squad quickly found out, were also extremely durable. Every shot they fired did virtually no damage to the massive creatures. T'Mori's biotics were equally useless as they couldn't even lift the massive creatures. It wasn't until one of Garrus's shots actually manage to penetrate one of the creatures' thick skulls that they knew how to actually hurt the creatures. The team worked to fire on the creatures' heads, though they spent a good deal of their ammo on the powerful brutes, since even headshots were barely doing any damage. It took them five minutes just to kill one of the krogan brutes.

Unfortunately, the other managed to get into range of the squad and started swinging his tree trunk arms at them. The team managed to move out of range of the slow attacks at least until the creature began working to use the momentum of its attacks to speed them up.

Realizing the creature's threat at close-range, the squad tried moving back to avoid them, but Shepard, seeking to draw attention away from his squad, stayed just out of range while still managing to avoid it. He got it to turn its back to the team, which gave Grunt the opening he needed to hit the creature with a shotgun blast in its back. This drew the creature's attention once again, which turned to face them. The team then hit the creature's gut with their most powerful attacks, causing no damage, but making it bend over from the force.

Shepard used this to climb up the tyrant's back and he activated his omni-blade before driving it into the infected krogan's head, finally killing it. After withdrawing his blade from the creature's skull, Shepard led the team up the next set of stairs to come out on the next floor. This one, like the rest, was a large circular room with another door along with an elevator. Besides the team, there was one other person present.

The man had slicked back dirty blonde hair and was dressed in a black trenchcoat with matching pants, boots, shirts, and gloves. He was wearing dark sunglasses as well. When he saw the squad enter, the man started clapping slowly before speaking "Well done, admiral! You managed to beat those two with minimal effort, just as one would expect from the 'Savior of the Galaxy' and with thirty minutes to spare no less! Truly well done!"

Shepard recognized the voice instantly, "Wesker," he growled.

This made the insane doctor's smile widen even further, "Correct, now to escape you just have to go up that elevator and you will find yourself in my office, which is connected to the executive shuttlepad. But I'm afraid that you won't be using it."

"Why not?" Shepard asked, preparing his gun.

"Because in order to do so, you would have to get past me."

"Deal!" Shepard said, as the squad raised their weapons to fire on the leader of Umbrella.

Their shots proved fruitless as Wesker began moving at speeds that made him appear to be little more than a blur. Every shot was dodged with seemingly little effort as he closed the distance to the squad. He backhanded T'Mori, sending the Asari flying before throwing Garrus with one hand and kicking Grunt with a straight kick, sending the krogan flying back as well. Suze tried to grab Garrus's pistol to use it, but she received the same treatment as T'Mori. Then, he grabbed Shepard by his neck and lifted him up with one hand.

"You see, admiral, all of those attacks and traps weren't meant to kill you, but rather to slow your progress until I finished my last experiment. As you can see, my experiment has made me into a god! Now, you can never hope to equal me! Now, I think it's time for you to pay for your crimes against Humanity! I shall enjoy taking my time to punishing you!"

With that, Wesker pressed a button on his omni-tool and the circular area that he and Shepard were on began lowering and passing through the level beneath it after it opened to let it through, so that the two were hanging over the massive horde of infected on the bottom floor. Once the platform stopped moving, Wesker threw Shepard across the platform. As he skidded to a stop, Shepard's gun flew out of his hand and off of the platform.

Smirking cockily, Wesker gave Shepard the universal 'bring-it-on' hand gesture. Shepard charged at the mad doctor, his omni-blade activated. He swiped at the leader of Umbrella, but each of his attacks were dodged by Wesker with seemingly little effort. He punched Shepard with a straight jab in the chest sending him flying back. He used his superhuman speed to run behind Shepard and hit him with a roundhouse kick to his back, sending Shepard flying again. Then, Wesker picked Shepard up again and started savagely punching his gut and face with his superhuman strength.

Managing to block one of the punches, Shepard pulled out a grenade and tossed it in Wesker's face where it exploded, sending both of the combatants flying back. Shepard was dazed by the close-range explosion and his right arm was broken, not to mention a few ribs were likely cracked. He looked at the smoke where he last saw Wesker, hoping he was at least somewhat injured from it, but a second later, the smoke dissipated and Wesker could be seen, a single strand of hair out of place, his face blackened by ash, and his glasses damaged enough that they fell off his face. Shepard was surprised to see Wesker's eyes were now glowing bright red.

"I told you before, Shepard," Wesker said, stalking towards the wounded hero, "I'm a god! You can't beat me!"

"I bwill/b beat you, Wesker," Shepard said as he pulled his pistol out and started firing at him.

Wesker dodged the shots with moves that would put Neo to shame before moving swiftly to grab Shepard again and lift him up. "No, you won't, but don't feel too bad you put up a good effort, even if you are merely human and could never match a god. Oh, and don't worry about being lonely in the next world. Your quarian whore-wife will be joining you soon, if she's not waiting for you already," he said with a prideful smirk.

Shepard felt his blood run cold, "What!?"

"You never wondered why there were so few of my loyal supporters here? I sent the rest to Rannoch before you even got here!" Wesker shouted, sounding very pleased with himself.

Shepard's face darkened, "You're dead. Even if it kills me, I swear you'll die here!"

With that, Shepard activated his omni-blade and drove it into Wesker's chest, who threw the captive admiral away. Shepard rolled to his feet and pulled another grenade out to throw it at Wesker. It exploded in a bright flash, blinding Wesker. Shepard fired at Wesker with his pistol, this time actually managing to hurt him and make him step back several steps. Before Wesker could recover, Shepard charged at him and slashed him with his omni-blade and tackling him over the edge.

Shepard managed to grab the edge to keep himself from falling off. Wesker, however, fell all the way to the ground. Shepard looked down to see that the infected swarming over where Wesker fell. "Yeah, you're a god alright."

He climbed up and using his omni-tool, he contacted his team two levels up. Garrus answered and Shepard told him to hurry and use a console that he saw on the floor to bring him back up. Garrus didn't waste time and about a minute later, Shepard was back on the top floor.

"Everyone alright," Shepard asked, his broken arm hanging limp. The entire squad nodded and Shepard said, "Good! Now, let's move! We don't have much time!"

Shepard and the squad piled into the elevator and rode it up to the next level. Coming out in an office, Shepard headed for the only other door to head to the shuttle.

"Shepard? Shouldn't we deactivate the self-destruct?" Garrus asked as they ran to the shuttle that was already prepared. Apparently, Wesker had planned to use it for his own flight.

"No, the explosion will destroy all of the creatures, even any that might be underground. We can't risk any of them surviving! Just one surviving could cause all of this to start again! Besides we need to get back to Rannoch now!" Shepard said as he ran.

"Why?" T'Mori asked.

"That psychotic bastard said that he sent his men to Rannoch before we even arrived! Tali could be in trouble!" Shepard said as they came out onto the landing pad.

"I'll start the shuttle up!" Garrus said, running ahead of the team to do so.

The squad piled into the shuttle with Garrus in the pilot seat and T'Mori in the co-pilot seat. Shepard, being the officer in charge, was the last to get in and guarded the door as it closed shut and the shuttle took off. Just as it was lifting off, something slammed onto the shuttle and the door was pulled open. Shepard saw that it was Wesker, who somehow managed to not only survive the fall and the infected, but also catch up to them, though not without some injuries as seen by the chunks of flesh missing from his person.

"You can't beat me, Shepard! I am a god! I will feast on your very soul!" Wesker yelled.

"Feast on this!" Shepard yelled as he used Grunt's shotgun to launch a concussive shot straight in Wesker's face, knocking him off the shuttle.

"Nooooooo!" Wesker yelled as he fell, seconds before a bright light enveloped the tower.

The shuttle door shut just before it was struck by turbulence caused by the explosion.

Shepard activated the comm. to contact the Indiana, "Shepard to the Indiana, I repeat, Shepard to the Indiana, do you read?"

The Indiana's pilot replied, "Yes, sir, we read you. Are you in the shuttle I'm picking up?"

"Yeah, that's us. Plot a course to Rannoch. We're heading there as soon as we're in the shuttle bay."

"Uh, sir, our orders-"

"If you finish that sentence, I swear I will throw you out the airlock and pilot the ship myself! Just do it!" Shepard yelled.

"Yes sir!" the pilot replied before ending the transmission.

Once the shuttle was in the shuttlebay, the Indiana headed for Rannoch as fast as it could. While they waited, the remaining squad members prepared their weapons, took care of whatever injuries they had as best they could, and replenished their ammo.

When he was done with his preparations, Shepard was staring at the galaxy map, like his staring at the destination would make them reach it faster.

"Shepard?" asked a voice behind the admiral.

"Yeah, Garrus. What is it?"

"She'll be okay. Tali will be fine," he reassured.

"You remember my wedding, Garrus?" the admiral asked.

"Of course, you asked me to be your best man after all," the turian said, not sure where he was going with this.

"I was so scared, so frightened that I'd never be good enough to make her happy. You said I was being ridiculous, remember?"

"Yeah, I told you that you had nothing to worry about, that you've made her happier than she's ever been just by caring for her."

"And I said that she'd already done the same for me and that she was my reason to fight! Well, if something happened to her, then I'll have another reason," Shepard said, turning to Garrus, an expression of rage on his face, "If so much as a hair on her head has been harmed, I'll hunt down each and every one of them and rip them apart with my bare hands!"

Garrus nodded in understanding. Shepard had been through more hell than any other soldier in history. He'd seen death and destruction, he'd even died himself, only to come back to a changed galaxy. Only Tali had provided a light in the darkness of his life. If he lost that, lost bher/b, Garrus feared what would happen to his friend.

"It won't come to that, Shepard," Garrus said, "And worrying about it will only cause you to make a mistake."

Shepard nodded and the two waited side-by-side for them to reach their destination. When they finally reached the Quarian homeworld, Shepard and his team climbed into the ship's mako and headed down to the world. After sending a message to the Quarians in charge that they were coming in, Shepard piloted the mako in the direction of his home. The admiralty board told him that fighting had erupted in the area and numerous armed forces had been sent to deal with it, which is why Shepard was currently driving at a breakneck pace.

His home looked like it had been the center of a warzone. There were smoking craters and corpses everywhere. The house was being guarded by numerous troops of different species from krogan to quarians to humans, which would have confused Shepard had he not been more focused on the fact that the house itself was almost in pristine condition, save for a few shattered windows and bullet holes in the walls.

Shepard ran out of the mako, yelling, "Tali! Tali, are you there!"

The soldiers that were guarding the house seemed surprised by his actions, but even more so when someone from inside the house called back, "Alex!? Alex, is that you!?"

Tali came out and saw her beloved husband. She ran to him, as he did the same, tears of happiness running down her face. She jumped into his arms as he pressed his lips to hers and suddenly everything was alright in the galaxy for Shepard and Tali as well.

"Get a room, you two!" shouted a voice from the house.

The husband and wife separated, albeit grudgingly, and looked towards the house to see Jack, along with every single one of their former squadmates, from Jack to Samara to Ash to even Javik, smirking or full-blown smiling at the two's loving embrace.

"Then, get out of our house so we can!" Tali shouted jokingly.

"How are all of you here?" Shepard wondered.

"When they heard that you were on a mission and about my pregnancy, they felt that there could be a threat to me because of the enemies that we've made. Keelah, Wrex even brought some of his top krogan warriors, Jack brought her students, and the Shadow Broker, apparently, sent some of his troops to protect me as well when he heard that there might be Cerberus survivors. Turns out they arrived just in time because these troops suddenly arrived and tried to kill me, but they weren't expecting an army of our friends and allies to be protecting me," Tali explained.

"Thank you, everyone, thank you so much!" Shepard said, as he tightened his embrace around the love of his life.

"Do not worry about it, Shepard," Samara said.

"Yeah, I owed ya one after all!" Wrex said, "Besides it's been a while since I got to be in a good fight.

"We all did. Besides we are friends, after all," Liara said to which each of the members nodded in agreement.

"So, is it over, Alex?" Tali asked.

"Yes, it's done."

"Good," she said before bringing her lips back to her beloved's, this time they weren't interrupted, which was just fine for the both of them.


End file.
